This study investigated the roles of different executive function (EF) components (inhibition, shifting, and working memory) in 2-step arithmetic word problem solving. A sample of 139 children aged 8 years old and regularly attending the 3rd grade of primary school were tested on 6 EF tasks measuring different EF components, a reading task and a…

Both between- and within-group differences in children ages nine to eleven identified as having reflective or impulsive cognitive tempos. Cognitive tempo was first assessed using Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures test, and children were later tested on the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. (Author/RH)

College undergraduates were given Zelniker and Jeffrey's modification of the Matching Familiar Figures Test to assess its psychometric credibility and construct validity for adult problem solvers. The modified test has improved internal consistency and stability over the original. The construct's possible correlation with general problem solving…

In terms of Kagan's theory of the problem-solving process, this study explores the relationship between reflection-impulsivity, hypothesis generation and testing, and evaluation of the quality of one's own solutions among children approximately 8 to 12 years old. (JMB)

Measures of latency and accuracy and self-ratings of performance on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) were found to significantly differentiate between college students self-rated as high- and low-success problem solvers. Results suggest a need for training low-success, impulsive problem solvers in more effective problem-solving…

Third grade children (n=24) who were administered the standard, simultaneous version of the Matching Familiar Figures test committed fewer errors when administered a sequential version of the same test than did subjects (n=24) who took the more difficult sequential version first. (PN)

This study assessed the bipolarity of cognitive style for 970 clients of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, a vocational guidance service. The 462 male and 508 female examinees were aged 14 to 65 years, with a median age of 24 years. Three cognitive style tests were investigated: (1) the Kagan Matching Familiar Figures Test (KMFFT); (2) the…

Cognitive self-instructional (CSI) programs have been successful in improving problem-solving skills in many, but not all, children. The importance of understanding the influence of subject characteristics in self-control studies, while often ignored in actual research, has been repeatedly advocated verbally. This paper presents a study designed…

Third grade subjects were classified as impulsive or reflective on the basis of the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test. In Experiment I, subjects were given either convergent thinking tasks, brainstorming tasks, or a control task. In Experiment II, half of the subjects received difficult tasks intended to induce failure while the other half…

This study examines two questions: (1) are the natural environmental contingencies under which reflective and impulsive children operate different? and (2) if so, which, if any of these differences, predict the nature of behavior change? Forty impulsive and reflective children and their mothers were observed while solving discrimination problems…

This study examined children's problem solving strategies by testing the verbal and mathematical abilities of 52 second-grade and 51 fourth-grade students. After being identified as either reflective or impulsive, based on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test, the children were given grade-appropriate mathematical and verbal reasoning problems…

Describes two experiments, one with undergraduates and one with high school students, that tested instructional strategies for teaching computer programing. The cognitive styles of impulsivity and reflection are examined, completion strategy versus generation strategy is tested, and results support a preferential model rather than a compensatory…

The major purpose of this study was to assess the degree to which cognitive style, as indexed by the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), is related to the way in which children respond to problems with social or interpersonal content. Fifty-two reflective and 64 impulsive first- and second-grade boys were presented with a number of stories in…

The effects of different types of feedback in computer assisted instruction were studied in 30 college students with different cognitive styles. The program, written in Apple Pilot and administered on an Apple IIE microcomputer, consisted of 16 problem solving tasks; for each, a graphic display and a textual question were presented. Two feedback…